The Carcinogen of Justice

Throughout history, "law" has never been anything more than a social mechanism for protecting the interests of those with money. As such, it does little or nothing, and commonly less than nothing (i.e. by making things worse), for those with little or no money. This is as true today as it has ever been; and you needn't just take my word for it. Many books have been written detailing this very principle - written by highly respected and well known social analysts and philosophers, such as Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault, not to mention historical greats such as Nietzsche and even Plato (1) (though I am forced to admit that most of these don't put it in so blunt of terms as I have).

People are conditioned to believe that without law, society could not funcion. In fact, the "rule of law" is considered one of the five factors that give rise to modern society (amoungst trade, agriculture, organized religion/government, and writing itself), if I remember my history correctly (and correct me if I'm wrong, but whatever error I may have made here will not effect my point: that we are taught that law is a prerequisit of society). I won't argue this point; society, as we know it today, certainly depends on law, much as a cancerous tumor depends on certain DNA sequences that are copied from one cell to the next.

My point? Perhaps laws, as we know them through history, are the very mutation in the natural sequence of human developement that promotes our unchecked population growth and consumption of natural resources. And, along with other mutations that promote societal developement (religion, etc...) this sequence of social events supports the unstable growth of the human population in the same way that a set of DNA sequence mutations promotes the unstable growth of cell populations in people who have cancer. It's not only possible, but even highly probable that I am right.

So, expecting the "law" to somehow "cure" itself, is a fool's gambit. It could happen, of course; after all, some cancers do manage to cure themselves, don't they? I just wonder what the odds are!

(J.D. August 30, 2015)

Notes: (1) According to my philosophy dictionary, Thrasymachus, who inspired Plato's philosophy of justice (i.e. "law"), defined Justiced as the "interest of the stronger".